Metal Mouth Message Board

So now that I'm inspecting my teeth a billion times a day, and analyzing my smile in every picture I take of myself to see changes and improvements, I'm starting to notice I have a little bit of a gummy smile. More so than anyone else in my family. I'm just having traditional ceramic braces done, I had a deep bite fixed, can anything else be done to reduce a gummy smile with the hardware I have now? I will bring it up with my ortho at my next visit, I just thought I'd gather some ideas here as well.

It would be helpful if you posted a photo of what you mean. Perhaps a before pic and what you're seeing now?

I started off with a gummy smile and mine has been corrected using a reverse curve wire.

Here's before and 22 months (not all 22 months were in the reverse curve wire, it was used a few months at a time until the desired amount of lift was achieved without flattening the smile arc).

I don't have photos hosted anywhere online so I can't upload anything. I'm on an iPad. And I don't know if I have good before pictures to compare. I had reverse curve wires for a few months in the beginning. Maybe I need to go back into one, at least on the top? I have an appointment next week, I'll bring it up then.

There are several causes of a "gummy smile"-

Skeletal maxillary excess- upper jaw is too deep -- usually requires surgery
Lip incompetence- thin lip or one that retracts too much when smiling - botox, collagen injections, or sew the lip down a bit
Excess gum tissue - "gum lift" surgery or just a laser gingivectomy depending on how bad it is

You can google these terms for some informative articles. Also look up "altered passive eruption".